


a little quid pro quo never hurt anyone

by ashotoflife



Category: Fate: The Winx Saga (TV), Winx Club
Genre: Canon Divergent, F/M, Sort Of, basically the battle of the burned ones happened, because there are absolutely other professors at that school, but rosalind didn't, i don't care what fate says, it's because i too sucked at algebra 2 so now im projecting, no it's not because im too lazy to try to figure out how to write about a magic course, no real content warnings other than explicit talk of algebra 2 concepts, not much of a plot outside of the initial premise tbh, oh last thing, so dowling is still alive and in charge, the algebra II teacher is a new character, yes even fairies and specialists must learn math
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29834160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashotoflife/pseuds/ashotoflife
Summary: It's the start of next term and Riven is allowed (read: forced) to retake a first-year course that he failed last spring with the stipulation that he have a tutor. Musa is anxious to learn how to defend herself in the case of another attack but can't get Silva or Dowling to agree to teach her. The two strike a deal. After all, what's a little quid pro quo between antagonistic acquaintances?
Relationships: Musa/Riven (Winx Club)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 130





	1. The Deal

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has totally gotten away from me and was initially meant to be a long one-shot but, at this point, I don't know when I'll finish writing it (dw tho, a lot of it is written already so it will definitely be completed), so, after much contemplation, I've decided to break it up into a multi chapter. I was hesitant because this thing really doesn't have much of a plot outside it's initial premise but I've just been itching to post it so here we are. It's already all mapped out and the first two chapters will likely be the shortest. I hope it doesn't suck lol. 
> 
> Also, creds to whoever had the idea of Riven referring to Aisha as "finding nemo." I read it somewhere and just thought it was so funny and in-character but I can't remember who wrote it, my apologies. Whoever you are, you're brilliant and I'm much obliged.

“I can’t do it anymore.”

“Riven–” Professor Wilson began.

“Look, if I have to sit through one more session with her, I’m going to off myself,” Riven threatened.

“Now that– that is a bit of an overreaction.”

Riven sat up in his desk, leaning forward.

“She looks at me like I’m dogshit she stepped in.”

Professor Wilson heaved a heavy sigh, like he’d rather be anywhere but here.

“Riven, you know the deal. You’re allowed to retake the class for a new grade on the condition that you have a tutor,” Professor Wilson asserted, slightly exasperated as if he’d had this conversation many times before (he had).

“But does it have to be _finding nemo_?” Riven asked with a sneer. Professor Wilson leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and pinching his nose as if trying to maintain his composure. After a moment, he looked up.

“ _Aisha_ is the best in the class.” Riven opened his mouth to argue but Professor Wilson held up a hand, cutting him off. “ _But”_ he stressed, “if you can find someone else in the class willing to tutor you, then, no, it does not have to be Aisha.”

Riven gave a short jerky nod, relieved that he never had to suffer through another tutoring session with Aisha again. Sure, he knew he wasn’t great at algebra, the whole thing gave him a headache frankly, but she talked to him like he was an actual moron. She was never shy about her revulsion and Riven had reached a breaking point only two weeks in to term.

“Listen, Riven, your other professors from last year tell me you started first term really strong. If there’s something going on, you can tell me.” Riven scowled as he abruptly stood up from his desk.

“Nothing to report,” he muttered while heading to the door.

“I expect you to have a new tutor by Monday,” Professor Wilson called out to his retreating back. Riven didn’t so much as grunt in acknowledgement. If he had to listen to one more professor ask him “what happened?” with that fake pitying tone, he really was gonna snap. There was no sob story, nothing really to justify his fall from grace during first year. He just got tired of always playing by everyone else’s rules. It was all pointless bullshit anyway. The specialists were here to be molded into soldiers, to service the realms. There were no choices here, no point in trying. Not in this world.

~

Musa was doing her best to ignore the puppy dog eyes Sam was shooting her way from across the canteen as she shoveled salad into her mouth. Their break up was officially one week ago and it had been one hellish week of feeling everyone’s emotions about it but her own. And Sam’s that is. For, despite the way he was looking at her right now, she could barely get a read on him when she finally called it off and much less now. Musa looked down at her salad bowl and concentrated on his calming presence from across the room, searching for something, anything. Anything that would indicate he felt as sad as he looked. Unsurprisingly, she came up empty. For some reason that bothered her more than it would have to know he was upset.

Terra was rambling on next to her about this “truly fascinating” new plant that her dad had discovered with all the zeal of a kid hyped up on sweets and Musa itched to put her headphones on and drown a little in her misery. Today just had not been her day. When the girls got back from holiday, Musa had made it her mission to get proper training. It had been something on her mind since even before the attack of the burned ones last semester, so she begged and begged Dowling to let her join in with the specialists until, finally, Dowling told her to talk to Silva, passing her off as if she was the child of divorced parents. Musa had sought out Silva right before lunch and, well, it was safe to say she would not be training with the specialists.

Terra’s rambling was abruptly cut off as Aisha plopped into the seat across from her.

“Hey, I thought you had tutoring today?” Bloom asked around a mouthful of food.

“Nope, Wilson told me I was off the hook. Thank god. Riven is vile,” Aisha muttered with disdain.

“He can’t be that bad,” Bloom said, ever the optimist. After everything that had happened first semester, Bloom was the first person one would expect to talk shit about Riven, but Sky had apparently convinced her to take pity.

“Trust me, he is. And a complete idiot at that. Trying to teach him anything is like talking to a brick wall and expecting an answer.”

Musa’s eyes roamed around the canteen against her own volition until they landed on Riven. He was over in the corner, shrouded in shadows. These days he seemed even more of a lone wolf than usual. They shared one class together, oddly enough. It was Algebra II, a first-year course. Most of the time he just sat in the back of the room scowling at everyone. Musa supposed she couldn’t really blame Aisha. Afterall, _tutoring Riven_ did sound like it would be a nightmare. She truly couldn’t imagine him taking anything other than training seriously. Not that he really took that seriously either, if her spotting him getting high behind the greenhouse during sparring practice today was anything to go by. 

“Muse, how did it go with Silva? Did you talk to him?” Aisha asked her, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“Uh, not well,” Musa said with a slight shrug, trying to appear unbothered by the dismissal. Truthfully, she was frustrated beyond measure, but it didn’t do her or anybody else any good to dwell on it. There had to be some way for her to learn how to defend herself. She was just going have to figure it out on her own.

Aisha made a noise of sympathy before turning back to Bloom and striking up a conversation about the offensive magics class they were in together. Dowling had introduced the new course just this semester, now that it seemed like the burned ones might be a real and persistent threat. Musa, of course, was not invited to attend.

Musa didn’t know why but she found herself searching for Riven again. Sky was now sitting across from him and the barest hint of a smile was playing on Riven’s lips. It even seemed genuine. It was sort of nice, in its own unsettling way. Riven looked up then and caught Musa’s eyes so she quickly looked away, and turned back towards the girls, trying to pick up on the conversation they were immersed in. She ignored the confusion and irritation she could feel from him all the way across the cafeteria.

~

It was Monday morning and Riven still hadn’t found a new tutor. Granted, he hadn’t exactly tried to find one. He wasn’t really “in” with the first years and, of the ones he did know, well, let’s just say they weren’t harboring any warm, fuzzy feelings towards him. Beatrix was still around, albeit on a very probationary basis but he’d learned to steer clear of her. And Dane, in the first intelligent move he’s made all year, had finally learned to steer clear of both of them.

Professor Wilson was droning on about polynomial factorization or some shit, while Riven fought to stay awake. Suddenly he felt someone’s eyes on him and looked over to his right where Musa was sitting watching him as he scratched “wilson suks dicks” into the wooden desk top. He could see the moment she made out the words because she raised her eyebrows and then shot him a thoroughly unimpressed look.

“Are you trying to get suspended?” she whispered.

“Mind your business little fairy,” Riven whispered back pointing his knife at her. She simply rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the front of the classroom.

He didn’t interact with Musa much, because _ugh mind fairies_ , but she was hot, no denying that. 'Course he wouldn’t touch her with a ten-foot poll. The very idea that there were people at this school that could access his emotions anytime they wanted and he could do absolutely nothing about it made him feel physically ill.

Class was finally wrapping up and Wilson was talking about the homework they had due for next time. Riven was honestly considering making a run for it at this point. 

Wilson finally dismissed them and everyone started gathering up their things. Next to him, Musa was standing up and shouldering her backpack.

“You know ‘sucks’ is spelled with a ‘c’ right?”

“It was an artistic choice,” Riven bit back, as he got up from his desk. She let out a small snort and then, well, and then she just kept standing there, as if she was waiting for him to grab his things and leave with her.

“Can I help you?” Riven asked, his voice laced with healthy dose of irritation. Musa bit down on her lower lip and played with one of her pigtails, almost nervously. It was weird. Very weird.

“Yes, you can,” she responded, not sounding terribly confident. Riven waited and she still wasn’t fucking speaking.

“Well, spit it out.”

Musa inhaled and then tilted her chin up slightly, a small act of defiance.

“I want you to teach me how to fight,” she said at last.

“You what?” he asked in confusion. She looked pained, as if the last thing she wanted to be doing was asking him for anything.

“Look, Silva refuses to let me join in on any of the specialist classes and Dowling won’t teach me offensive magic, so I’m out of options,” she rushed out. Now that Riven finally understood what she was asking, his confusion and irritation was replaced by amusement. Musa wanted to learn how to fight? From _him_? Oh, this was just too good. She was clearly embarrassed about it too. Riven was itching to make fun of her, even if just a little, but then he heard a throat clear and he looked up to see Professor Wilson waiting for him at the front of the classroom, clearly expecting him to share news of having found a new tutor. He was out of time. And here was Musa, standing in front of him, asking for a favor.

“Under one condition. You tutor me in this bloody class.” Musa’s eyebrows shot up. She clearly wasn’t expecting that. “Either that or I’m not fucking helping you.”

“Fine,” she agreed with little to no hesitation.

“Fine?”

“Fine.”

Riven turned to the front of the room where Professor Wilson was still waiting expectantly and fought back the urge to roll his eyes as he gathered up his stuff.

“Come on,” he muttered to Musa and she followed him up to the front of the room.

“Well, Riven, good news, I suspect?” Professor Wilson asked in a way that made Riven really wish hitting a professor wasn’t a one-way ticket to expulsion.

“The mind fairy’s gonna tutor me,” he mumbled, jerking his chin slightly in her direction.

“Musa! Ah, excellent choice. She’s one of the top students in the class.”

Riven looked over at her, a little surprised. She was always so laid back and almost never spoke during class, unlike Aisha who spent half the time with her hand in the air. Musa, to her credit, didn’t bask in Wilson’s praise. She just gave a tight-lipped smile and looked very much like she had made a fatal mistake. Wilson seemed to detect the weird energy and told them to have a nice rest of their day. A clear dismissal.

As soon as they stepped out of the classroom, Musa turned to him.

“Okay, so one tutoring session in exchange for one training session. I have a free period on Wednesdays and there’s a corner in the back of the library that no one ever uses.”

“We can, uh, train on Sundays by the clearing,” Riven offered awkwardly, already regretting every life choice he had ever made that had gotten him to this moment.

“No one can know,” she added.

“Agreed.” The last fucking thing Riven needed was the first years tittering behind his back about what a moron he was.

“No one can know what?” Sky asked appearing out of nowhere. Riven shot Musa a look of panic but she was quick on her feet.

“Oh, just what an arsehole Riven is,” she supplied smoothly with a little smile. Sky chuckled as he propped an arm on Riven’s shoulder, who promptly shoved him off.

“I think it’s a bit late for that,” Sky grinned.

“Hey, whose best friend are you?” Riven responded with indignation as he punched Sky in the arm.

“Yours, and that’s how I can say with confidence that you’re an arsehole.” Even though Sky was taller than him, Riven reached up to try give him a noogie as Sky laughed loudly and wrestled him off.

“Alright, well it’s been a pleasure. Sort of,” Musa said as she gave them a look that screamed _dumbasses_. “Bye Riven, bye Sky.”

“Tell Bloom I’m coming by to see her later,” Sky called to Musa as she headed down the hallway. She lifted a hand in acknowledgement before turning the corner.

“What was that about?” Sky asked, turning to Riven.

“What can I say? First years are obsessed with me.”

Sky looked at him in suspicion.

“Riv, don’t start screwing around with Bloom’s friends,” he warned. “I’m serious.”

“I wasn’t doing shit.”

“Yeah, sure you weren’t. Come on, Silva’s gonna kill us if we’re late.” With that Sky took off and Riven trailed after him, feeling a little bit like he’d just signed his death sentence. _Tutoring with the mind fairy? What the actual fuck was he thinking?_


	2. Not a Terrible Idea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first tutoring and training session.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't going to post this until I had made some more progress on chapter 3 but if I read this chapter one more time I was gonna have an existential crisis. I also have no self control so there's that. Due to said lack of self control, Musa and Riven are already way softer than I meant them to be, oh well. 
> 
> Last thing, did Fate say anything about Sky's mum? I can't remember. For the purposes of this fic, she's alive and well (also, side note, do we think Sky's a prince in fate?? there was like that scene where he told stella he understood the pressures she was under better than anyone but I feel like someone would have mentioned it since his dad is discussed so much)

Their first tutoring session together was that Wednesday after lunch and Riven had spent every minute leading up to it wondering why the ever-loving fuck he thought spending so much time with a _mind fairy_ was a good idea, especially a stubborn, nosy one like Musa. The lunch crowd was dying down and Riven had watched Musa as she stood up from the table with her friends and glanced at him from across the canteen before heading out, presumably to their agreed upon meeting place in the library. After a minute, Riven got up to follow her there.

“Bailing on me already?” Sky asked.

“Lunch is over anyway. Plus, I’ve only got an hour before Spagyric Alchemy and I can only stand Harvey’s voice if I’m high, so…” Riven mimicked smoking a joint. Saint Sky rolled his eyes but refrained from chastising him. Riven promised to see him back at the dorm later and then headed to the library. 

Musa had chosen a table tucked into the back corner of the library, it was mostly obscured by shelves and shelves of books but there was a window facing out towards the gardens, letting in some natural light.

As he approached the table, he saw her sitting there, waiting for him, her chin resting on her hand as she looked out the window. Her hair up in those cute little bun things. She looked kind of peaceful, serene even. Riven had never seen her quite like that, but then the tension returned as if she sensed him coming. She probably had for all he knew. Unsurprisingly, when she looked up, she didn’t look particularly happy to see him.

“Took you long enough.”

Riven scoffed.

“It’s been like two minutes. Calm your tits,” Riven replied as he took a seat next to her. Musa’s face twisted up, clearly not pleased at how close he was. _Good._

“Okay, so this week we’re doing polynomial factorization. I figured we could start by going over the practice problems from class and then work on the homework together.”

Riven nearly flinched at the word ‘together.’ It just sounded so utterly bizarre coming from Musa and referring to him.

“Actually, I was thinking we could play a few rousing rounds of tic tac toe,” Riven suggested as he drew the tic tac toe board on the corner of Musa’s textbook.

“Stop that!” Musa whisper yelled at him while erasing his work.

“’Course you’d be just as lame as your water friend.”

She turned in her seat so she was facing him head on.

“Are you just gonna spend this whole time tempting me to stab you?”

Riven held up a finger, as if to say ‘one second,’ before reaching down into his backpack and pulling out one of his knives. He handed it to her.

“If you’re gonna stab me, might as well make sure it’s effective.”

“You just carry knives around?” she asked as she took it from him. With a little shake of her head, she added “Why am I surprised?”

Riven smirked, before leaning in to her a little.

“More surprises where that came from,” he whispered, suggestively. Musa narrowed her eyes and then she brought the hilt of the knife down on his hand. Hard. Riven hid his grimace behind a chuckle that wasn’t quite as airy as he meant it to be. _Feisty little thing she was_.

“So, you don’t know how knives work either. Remind me again why you’re my tutor.”

“Probably because no one else can stand to be in the same room as you for longer than five minutes.”

Riven swiped the knife back from her, before she could even blink.

“Ah ah ah,” he tsked as he pointed the blade at her. “Who was it that came groveling to who now? Desperate? In need? _Begging on her knees_ ,” he teased, his voice low and gravelly.

“I was _not_ on my knees,” Musa bit back angrily.

“No, but you’d sure look pretty on them.” And she totally would, he’d never realized what a turn on pigtails were, but _fuck._

Musa flushed and then made an obligatory note of disgust.

“You know what, Riven, if you’re just gonna spend the whole hour sexually harassing me and refusing to actually work, find a new tutor.”

She actually began to gather up her things and Riven realized that maybe, just maybe he’d gone a little too far.

“Wait,” he said quickly. Musa paused and looked at him, her brown eyes piercing his. “Sorry, I’ll fuckin’ pay attention or whatever,” he finished with a roll of his eyes. She gave a small satisfied nod and then readjusted herself, opening the textbook back up.

“Okay, so let’s start with something simple,” Musa ripped a piece of paper from her spiral notebook, and wrote down x2 \+ x – 30 on the sheet. “Factor this.”

Riven _fucking hated_ this. He hated her sitting there looking at him expectantly. He hated that this was something ‘simple.’ He hated that it made absolutely no fucking sense to him. He didn’t want to say it. He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t open his mouth and admit that he didn’t understand what she was asking.

But, apparently, he didn’t have to.

“So, here we have a trinomial,” Musa began carefully. “Tri since there are three parts separated by addition or subtraction. The purpose of factoring is to figure out which expressions multiplied together yield this equation. Anytime you see an equation that looks like this, where the first term,” and Musa pointed to the x2, “looks like that, raised to the power of 2, you know that the factors are going to look like this.” She wrote (x +/– _) (x +/– _) underneath the equation. Musa continued explaining in that calm and detailed way, while Riven tried to not be distracted by the way the sunlight was now filtering through the window, highlighting the different shades of brown that made up her dark hair. After she went through the first problem, she turned to him.

“Does that make sense?” she asked uncertainly. Riven realized she had probably never tutored anyone before and didn’t know if she was actually being helpful. He gave a small nod and she looked a bit relieved. “Okay, cool, I’ll write another one and then you can try.”

She wrote down another equation: x2 \+ 7x + 12. And then pushed the paper towards him, leaning into his space–probably unconsciously–to watch his work. This was a far cry from working with Aisha, who had tried to stay as far away from him as physically possible. Not to mention Aisha never explained things like this. She mostly told him to read the textbook and then got impatient when he didn’t understand something. Riven began the way Musa showed him, writing (x + )(x + ) underneath the equation. But then he got stuck again; _how did people just get this?_

Riven didn’t notice his leg was bouncing up and down until Musa placed her hand over it, her fingers curling around his thigh. He looked up in surprise.

Realizing what she was doing, Musa yanked her hand back as if it had been burned.

“Sorry,” she muttered quietly. Riven swallowed and shifted uncomfortably, his cheeks warming.

“’s okay,” he breathed out, resolutely not looking at her. “I just– I don’t get how you just know what works,” Riven admitted, cheeks burning, silently wishing for some god to take pity on his soul and smite him down right now. He could feel Musa’s eyes on him.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s a bit confusing at first,” she said softly. “We have to find two numbers that, multiplied together, equal twelve so let’s start by thinking of all the factors that go into twelve.” They went through them together until Riven had a short list on the side of the paper: 1 & 12, 2 & 6, 3 & 4\. “Okay, great, so now, which of these pairs, if you added them together would get you seven?”

“Oh, I think I get it now,” Riven said as he filled in the empty spaces of the expressions: (x + 3)(x + 4). Musa smiled at him, like a real, genuine smile and it made her brown eyes sort of sparkle and softened her in a way that made her look stupidly pretty and _shut up, Riven, for fuck’s sake_.

For the remaining time, Riven and Musa worked on the assigned problems Wilson gave them, Musa looking over and checking his work every once in a while, and Riven asking questions, relieved every time that she didn’t look at him like he was a moron and instead just patiently walked him through it.

All in all, it wasn’t _that_ terrible.

~

For the rest of week, Musa only really saw Riven during their shared class and once or twice in the canteen. They didn’t say “hi,” didn’t really acknowledge the other person’s existence but he wasn’t shooting her dirty looks anymore any time she accidentally caught his eye which felt like something.

When Sunday finally came around, Musa was buzzing to get started, albeit slightly nervous about what _training with Riven_ would even look like. One thing she felt confident about is that he wouldn’t go easy on her.

They had agreed to train early in the morning to ensure less foot traffic, so at 7:30 when the rest of the suite was still fast asleep, Musa forced herself out of bed and got ready as quietly as she could so as not to wake Terra.

When she finally made it outside, the day was sunny and cool. A nice shock to the system. And almost no people, which, for her, was a blessing.

Upon entering the clearing, she found Riven lying on his back his hands behind his head, basking in the warmth of the sun. She walked over to him and saw his eyes closed, so she nudged him slightly with her foot. An arrogant smirk slowly spread across his face.

“You’re early,” Musa questioned since it was ten minutes ‘til 8 which was the time they agreed upon. She had expected she’d have some time to stretch before he got here.

“Didn’t want to get your knickers in a twist again. Ready to take your first step in becoming a big girl?”

“Fuck you.”

“I prefer to be wined and dined first,” Riven joked finally opening his eyes to look up at her. In the sunlight, his irises looked brilliantly green. He didn’t seem to be making any moves to get up, content to just lie there, so Musa cut to the chase.

“So warm up and then we’ll spar?”

“Nope, today you’re just gonna run.”

“You can’t be serious.”

He was, in fact, totally serious.

“Your best hope of survival is being able to outrun the things so that’s where we’re starting. Come on little fairy, get a move on,” Riven made a little shooing motion with his hand. “Run to the specialist’s shed over there and then the tree line and then back here, three laps.”

“You know, if I’d known the sadistic pleasure you’d get out of this, I wouldn’t have asked for your help.”

Finally Riven got up, disarmingly quickly, just so he could loom over her. His taller than average height compared to Musa’s shorter than average one was yet another reason to dislike him.

“You don’t know anything about my _pleasure._ ” He gave her a lecherous grin, “But you could.”

Musa scrunched up her nose in distaste.

“Well, at the very least, I’ll get better at running away from you.”

“That’s the spirit,” he replied cheerily, before motioning her onwards. With a slight groan, Musa began to run.

It was clear to her that he was taking full advantage of the little power he had over her. A part of her thought it might have had to do with their tutoring session earlier in the week. In the face of having to do something that he didn’t feel confident in, he was a bundle of nerves. He must be aware on some level that she knew how anxious and embarrassed he had felt. If Musa had to guess, he was probably trying to get back at her for making him feel that way. Whatever. That was his problem and he was just going to have to learn to deal.

Every time she lapped around and passed him, she checked to see what he was doing. Mostly just staring at his phone looking bored. _Jerk._

By the third lap she felt herself slowing down and it was finally setting in just how out of shape she was. She came to a stop in front of him and he looked up from his phone for just a sec.

“Alright, now ten more laps.”

“You’re joking.”

“That, little fairy, was just the warm up. Or are you telling me you already wanna throw in the towel.”

Musa wanted to kill him, but she wanted to learn how to not be killed more, so after giving him her best death glare she turned around and started to run again. The whole exercise felt a little humiliating but she was comforted in the fact that he wasn’t watching her, too distracted by whatever Instagram model’s feed he was scrolling through.

It was sort of nice, in its own way, to breath hard again, to be so focused on her physical needs, her labored breathing, the ache in her legs, the pounding of her feet that the rest of the world and all its emotional baggage just fell away.

When she finally finished, she wanted to keel over. Riven was propped up against a tree, looking as calm and self-satisfied as ever. She leaned forward, clutching her knees as she tried to get her breathing to return to normal. He turned his phone towards her and she realized why he was always looking at his phone when she passed him. It was because he was timing her laps.

“Kind of slow,” he said smugly as he walked over to her.

“If I had the energy right now, I would hit you.”

“I’d love to see you try.”

Even though it was totally childish, his smugness was just too annoying, so Musa lifted her head up and with as much force as she could muster, she gave him a hard shove. Riven, of course, barely budged. In fact, he just laughed at her weak attempt.

“Cute.”

“Shut up.”

His eyes danced with mirth and then he clapped his hands twice and ordered her to the ground.

“Excuse you?” Musa crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Sit ups, let’s go.”

Musa grumbled a little but got down into sit up position and began.

“Stop moving forward,” Riven told her.

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Riven knelt down on the ground in front of her and held onto her feet, she squirmed her toes in her shoes at him. “Okay, keep going.”

Musa resumed her sit ups as Riven tried to do what he evidently did best: get on her nerves.

“You have terrible form by the way.”

When she came back up, she leaned just a little more forward and flicked him on the nose.

“Charming,” he said with a small laugh.

“Maybe I wouldn’t have such terrible form, if my trainer actually trained me,” Musa retorted, while continuing her sit ups.

“Ever heard the saying ‘patience is a virtue?’” he asked rhetorically.

“Ever heard the saying ‘you’re testing my patience’?” Musa quipped back, although the effect was perhaps a bit dampened by her heavy breathing and the constant up and down motion of the sit ups.

“Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do about it mind fairy? Give me a therapy session?” he snarked back.

Musa stopped her exercises and sat up, putting her hands behind her to prop herself up. Riven still held onto her feet.

“Something tells me that scares you a lot more than Aisha water boarding you,” she smirked. Riven scoffed.

“Fuckin’ Aisha. Your friend’s a bloody nightmare.”

“You know Riven, if everyone around you is a nightmare, then maybe it’s not them.”

Riven blinked at her in surprise. Musa wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting, maybe a witty comeback or even a glare but instead he just kept looking at her all funny and Musa resisted the urge to wipe at her face in case there was something on it.

“What?” Musa asked after a moment. Riven snapped out of it and just mumbled “nothing” with a small shake of his head.

“Weirdo,” she muttered before resuming her sit ups.

After she finished, Riven had her do a few more strength exercises, actually doing a couple with her. Mostly so he could make fun of her, especially during pushups: she could only do seven and he– well, he was just a show off (if she stared at his arms a little while he showed off that was neither here nor there).

Once they were done, he led her through some cool down stretches while overtly leering at her and then finally called it a day, just in time for breakfast to begin. It wasn’t exactly the training session that she had envisioned but she felt like she’d worked out more that morning than she had in well over year so, all in all, it wasn’t _that_ terrible.

~

Riven had been hoping Sky would already be down at breakfast when he returned to the dorms after his thing with Musa, but, unfortunately, no such luck.

“Hey man, where you been?”

“Uh, I wanted to a get in an early practice,” Riven stumbled through his words. Sky looked at him like he had two heads. _Shit lie._ “I’m just fucking with you,” Riven said with a laugh, as he pulled his jacket off and tossed it on the ground. “I needed a smoke break.”

Sky picked up Riven’s jacket and shoved it at his chest.

“It’s not even ten yet. That’s not a break. That’s an addiction. Get help,” Sky said. Riven rolled his eyes.

“Yes, mum.”

“Oh, speaking of which, you talk to your parents?” Sky asked as he grabbed some clothes out of his drawers.

“Uh, no, why the fuck would I do that?” Sky was fully aware that Riven could hardly stand his parents (just as they could hardly stand him) so he didn’t understand why the fuck Sky would bring them up. Sky just looked at him like he was an idiot.

“Evaluations? They’re next week. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

_Oh fuck._

“Oh fuck.”

Sky laughed.

“’Course you forgot. It’s not like Silva talks about it every single day at practice. You gonna call them?”

It wasn’t so much that Riven had forgotten about evaluations. It was more like he had willfully chosen to ignore them. Every specialist had to go through them during the second term of their second year. It determined their rank which was a sort of preliminary predictor of which sector of the Otherworld military they would join. Parents were invited to attend so it was also a way for the school to show off their little toy soldiers and rake in some donations. In summation, it was everything Riven hated about this fucking place.

“Don’t know,” Riven shrugged. “They probably couldn’t be bothered to show up anyway.” Before Sky could make some obnoxious gesture of sympathy, Riven asked him if his mum was coming.

“Yeah, she’s coming.”

“Oh, she gonna meet the girlfriend?” Riven waggled his eyebrows. Sky smiled all nauseatingly lovesick.

“Yeah, she wants to take Bloom out to dinner.”

“Be careful. Next thing you know, you’re gonna be walking down the aisle. And that’s it. You’re shagging the ginge ‘til you’re on your deathbed.”

“Oh, piss of” Sky muttered, as he hit Riven in the stomach with his towel. “I’m gonna go shower, wanna go to breakfast after?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Cool,” and with that Sky headed out of the room and Riven fell back on his bed, wondering if he should even bother calling his parents. The whole thing was just one big fucking dog and pony show anyway. Why the fuck would he want them there? They were just gonna give him shit when Sky inevitably ranked ahead of him.

Riven reached for his phone and before he could stop himself, shot his dad a text. If he didn’t respond, then whatever. It’s not like Riven really cared or anything.

~

When the alarm clock went off Monday morning, Musa awoke with a groan. She was so not ready to get up. Rubbing at her eyes, she forced herself to sit up.

“Good Morning!”

Terra was already cheerily moving around the room, getting ready for the day. If it wasn’t for the deeply human feelings of social anxiety and insecurity that followed Terra wherever she went, Musa would be sure her roommate was some sort of robot.

“Morning,” she grumbled in reply.

Musa made to move out of bed and nearly collapsed.

“Oof.”

“You alright?” Terra asked, turning to look at her. _Fuck._ Musa was shocked by how freaking sore she was. Sure, it might have been a few months, or, okay, maybe more like a year since she had last done any sort of workout, but she did not expect to be this wrecked the day after.

“Um, yeah, I just. It’s embarrassing. I totally fell on my ass yesterday while walking down the stairs, so now it hurts like a bitch,” Musa lied as she sat back down on her bed, not quite ready to face the day.

Terra clucked sympathetically.

“Hey! You know what, I think my dad has arnica growing in the greenhouse. It’s got anti-inflammatory properties. I could go get some for you when I see him later.”

“Um, yeah, that’d be great.”

Musa could tell there was more Terra wanted to say, she was practically bouncing on her heels.

“Was there . . . something else?”

Terra hurried over to her side, sitting down next to her on the bed. Musa curled her lips in to keep herself from making a rude retort about their proximity. Terra was, after all, a very _very_ loud person when it came to her emotions and the closer she was, the louder.

“I got Headmistress Dowling to agree to train with you!”

“You what?”

“Well, okay, not exactly _train_ train. Or I don’t know, not really sure how the whole mind fairy thing goes. But she is going to organize for you and the other first year mind fairies to do some group sessions together! You’ll get to learn new things and meet the other mind fairies. It’ll be so cool.”

Musa didn’t know what to say.

“How–”

“Oh, you know me. Friends in high places and all.” Which was true, what with her father being Professor Harvey.

“Wow, Ter, that’s,” Musa searched for the word. No one ever really went out of there way for her like that. And after the break up with Sam, Musa was worried that it might have some sort of ripple effect on Terra and the rest of the suite, but–

“That’s amazing,” she settled on. “Really, _thank you_.” Musa was full of gratitude. She never would have guessed it at the beginning of the year, but Terra really might be the best friend she’s ever had.

“Oh, don’t thank me, really, it was nothing. Just let me know how it goes, yeah?” Terra said as she gathered up her clothes and headed out of the room to change. Musa just nodded.

After grabbing a cup of coffee and repeating the lie she told Terra a few times to her other suitemates, Musa decided to head out to her first class early, realizing that it was inevitably going to take her longer than usual to get there.

Musa wasn’t really the kind of person who cared that much what other people thought of her but if she just so happened to take the rarely used stairwell on the east side by the specialist dorms so as to avoid anyone watching her as she struggled up the stairs that was her business.

Just as she was about to reach the stairwell, she heard a voice she’d recognize anywhere.

“Lots of work, I get it.” A pause. “I wasn’t taking an attitude.” _Who the hell was he talking to?_

Musa didn’t hear another voice so she peered around the corner. Riven was sitting on the landing at the top of the first half of stairs with a phone to his ear. She nearly choked on the bitterness that was pouring off of him. It was never really her intention to take in Riven’s emotions but it was almost impossible when he felt everything so intensely.

“Yes, sir, I understand.” _Sir?_ “Yeah, I will. Bye.” And with that Riven ended the call and shoved his phone in his pocket, before reaching up and tugging at his hair. Musa was about to turn around, but then, of course, her knees sort of gave way and she stumbled against the wall.

“Who the fuck’s there?” Riven called out.

_Damn it._

Musa slowly made her way out from behind the wall. When Riven saw her, she was punched with irritation.

“Spying on me now?”

Musa crossed her arms in front of her chest and lifted her chin.

“No, I was just heading to class.”

“You live on the other side of the college.” _Okay, fair point_.

“I just, uh, wanted to change it up today.” Even to herself, that sounded idiotic. Musa glanced around awkwardly, wishing he would leave so she could suffer in peace. He was clearly perplexed by her odd behavior.

“You just gonna fucking stand there all day or?” Riven asked throwing his hands up a little. _Considering the alternative would be to try to walk up those stairs? Yes, yes I am._

“And what’s it to you?”

Riven just stared at her like she’d gone mad and Musa was beginning to feel incredibly silly, so, with a grimace she began to walk (read: struggle) up the stairs while silently wishing for a hole to open at her feet. Understanding must have settled in because a wave of amusement flooded her as he began to snicker.

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

Like Riven could ever resist an opportunity to make fun of her.

“What do you think your friends would say if they knew I was the reason you can barely walk this morning?” he asked, riddled with innuendo. 

“It’s only 8 AM and I already feel nauseous. Trying to set a new record?”

Riven just grinned, looking beyond smug.

“This is just pathetic.”

“I will push you down these stairs.”

“Oh, yeah, and when will that be?” Riven checked an imaginary watch on his wrist. “Because, at this rate, you probably won’t reach me for at least a few more hours.”

“You really think you’re funny, don’t you?” Musa scowled up at him.

The expression on his face told her yes, he thought he was absolutely hilarious.

Riven walked down the stairs to meet her.

“All right little fairy, since this is a bit my fault, I’ll give you a one-time only offer,” Riven said, fake exasperated, as he turned around so his back was facing her and then motioned at her to hop on. She looked at him bewildered.

“You’re going to give me _a piggy back ride_?” she asked incredulously.

“If I don’t, we’ll be here all day.”

Musa refrained from pointing out that he didn’t have to stick around, he could just leave her there to struggle up the staircase by herself. Instead, she grabbed his leather-clad shoulders and jumped up. Riven’s hands wrapped around her thighs and pulled them up so they circled his waist and Musa tried very hard to not think about how they felt or how strong he clearly was, holding her up like it was nothing. She reached her arms around him and then settled into the crook of his neck. Riven turned his head a little to peek at her over his shoulder.

“This isn’t exactly the way I thought you’d be riding me but–”

Musa thumped him on the head.

“Ow, why are you always hitting me?”

“Because you never know when to shut up. Now come on, giddy up horsey,” Musa said as she lightly kicked his side.

Riven scoffed and then he looked back to her with a devilish grin.

_Uh oh._

He tightened his grip on her thighs and then began running up the stairs taking them two at a time. Musa let out a small shriek and held on to him tighter. Riven laughed loudly. The anger and resentment from earlier was gone. Instead, joy radiated from him with all the single mindedness of a child’s emotions. It was infectious and pretty soon Musa was laughing too. When he reached the top of the stairwell, he kept running. As they raced through an empty hallway, their laughter echoing off the walls, Musa felt lighter than she had in a very long time. 

~

The rest of the week passed with minimal fanfare. On Wednesday, after going through the homework, Musa gave Riven several more problems with polynomial division to practice. And on Sunday, Riven got his revenge by forcing her to hold a plank until her arms shook and then making her run _fifteen_ laps around the specialists’ training area (with a lot of complaining on Musa’s part and a lot of Riven annoyingly tell her to “trust the process”). Despite the constant bickering and the fact that Riven still hadn’t taught her to spar, they were hitting a sort of groove and, fortunately, no one seemed to suspect a thing.

Maybe, just maybe, this whole plan wasn’t such a terrible idea after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there you have it! Piggy back rides and progress! (they will spar eventually i promise) I have no idea when I will get chapter 3 up because I am so behind on my thesis and my advisor is going to catch on to that any moment now, so it might be a few weeks, my apologies. 
> 
> Also, thank you for all the lovely comments on the last chapter!! I really appreciate it <3


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